A smart phone may download and install third party applications, for example mobile applications that are made by mobile application developers not managed by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of the smart phone or by a wireless communication service provider of wireless communication service to the smart phone. During installation or during execution, a third party application may ask a user of the smart phone to grant consent for the third party application to access and use confidential and/or private information associated with the user and/or the smart phone. For example, the third party application may request consent to look-up a physical location of the smart phone, to read from a contacts list of the smart phone, and/or to send information from the smart phone to the Internet. A developer or owner of the third party application desirably maintains records of consents obtained from users of smart phones, for example to comply with government regulations or best industry practices.
Individuals may provide consent to use their confidential and/or private information to third parties in other circumstances. For example, a car buyer may provide consent to a car dealer to access his or her confidential information to assess a creditworthiness of the buyer. A credit card applicant may provide consent to a financial institution to access his or her confidential information to assess the creditworthiness of the applicant. A consumer completing an on-line Internet retail purchase may provide consent to the on-line retail enterprise to store credit card and shipping information of the consumer. A prescription drug consumer may provide consent to a pharmacy, via an interactive voice recognition (IVR) system, to send unsolicited communications to a mobile phone or an email account associated with the consumer, for example to notify the consumer of prescription drug refill schedules or of sales promotions. Sometimes consent agreements contain a time limit constraint, limiting the validity of the consent to a delimited period of time. Other consent agreements may contain no time limit constraints and remain valid until explicitly cancelled by the individual.